How Gunners have got Nicolas Pépé firing
During his final season with Lille, Nicolas Pépé averaged 0.33 non-penalty goals per 90. For Arsenal this term, that figure stands at 0.34. He’s only just ticked over the 1,000-minute mark in the Premier League, so the volume isn’t yet there, but there are signs to suggest Mikel Arteta has figured out how to get the best from the club’s record signing.
For example, Pépé has already matched his goals haul from his debut campaign with the Gunners in half the playing time. The strike against Leicester was his fifth of the season and his third in just a little over a month.
The Ivorian is much more involved this season. He’s averaging more shots, 2.74 up from 1.91, and one more touch in the penalty area on a per 90 basis. It may not seem like it, but, over the course of a 38-game campaign, that equates to 32 more shots and 38 more touches in the box. It sounds simple, but the more involved an attacker is in the final third, the more of a threat they are.
The 25-year-old was being harshly judged last year when the system and style weren’t necessarily conducive. Players often take time to adapt to a new league and the stop-start nature of the 2019/20 season wouldn’t have helped.
Arsenal fans are now beginning to see what Pépé can do on a more consistent basis. He’s now less involved in the build-up phase, averaging fewer dribbles per 90, and more involved in the final phase of play.
As evidenced in the passes received and movements map above, Pepe is making more incisive runs this season and his goal against Leicester really illustrates that.
The Arsenal No.19 picks the ball up inside the Leicester City half and drives forward. Cedric bursts ahead and overlaps the Ivory Coast international, dragging Ricardo Pereira with him to free up space in the centre for Pépé.
Last season, in this exact scenario, the likelihood is that he would’ve opted to shoot. In the embedded tweet earlier on in the piece, you can see that the majority of his efforts seemed to originate from near that part of the pitch.
However, he resists the temptation and instead lures Çağlar Söyüncü into closing him down before he plays the pass. This then forces Pereira into having to keep tabs on both Pépé and Cedric.
The ball finds its way out to Willian and he, somehow, manages to get a pass off to Pépé who is free in the six-yard area having continued his run. In many ways, it was a Manchester City goal. They’re famed for cutting the ball back into the area and having their wide forwards score from close range. It isn’t identical, but the goal did share some similarities with that.
Furthermore, there’s more variety to the shots taken by Pepe this season. When looking at his shot map, you can clearly see that Arteta is trying to get his No.19 into better shooting positions. And it is working.
The signs are all positive for Pépé and for Arsenal. Arteta deserves credit for piecing together a system that is now playing to the strengths of his forwards.
All the graphics and visualisations in this article use Wyscout data and were produced in the Twenty3 Toolbox.
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